Joe Jackson Announces New Album ‘Fool’

Joe Jackson announced the release of his 20th studio album on Jan. 18, 2019.

The eight-track LP is named Fool and follows 2015’s Fast Forward. Next year also marks the 40th anniversary of his debut album, Look Sharp.

“When it looked like I’d be recording in late July and mixing around my birthday, in August, it struck me that the only other occasion that had happened was while making my first album,” Jackson said in a statement. “It still took a while for it to sink in: This would be 40 years on … ”

Jackson noted that the "road to this album is littered with the wrecks of songs and half-songs that didn’t make the grade. There are eight survivors, which I think is enough. … I never have an overall theme in mind when I start trying to write songs for an album, but sometimes one will develop. In this case it’s Comedy and Tragedy, and the way they’re intertwined in all our lives. The songs are about fear and anger and alienation and loss, but also about the things that still make life worth living: friendship, laughter, and music, or art, itself. I couldn’t have done this in 1979. I just hadn’t lived enough.”

You can watch the video for the first single, “Fabulously Absolute,” below.

The album was produced by Jackson along with Pat Dillett, who’s previously worked with David Byrne, Sufjan Stevens and others.

Jackson and his band – Teddy Kumpel, Graham Maby and Doug Yowell – launch a North American tour on Feb. 5, running until Mar. 9, with dates in Europe and the U.K. to follow.